Shades of Gray
by Ryxelle20
Summary: The Organization returns... in part and reak havoc on Sora's peacful world, putting in danger the ones he holds most dear. Riku, King Mickey, Kairi, who will be next? Read to find out.


Prologue

Prologue

Where do you go, when everything but your eternal soul is gone?  
Darkness. Nothing but darkness could be seen. Then, far away, in the parallel dimension, an explosion sounded, and out of the dark erupted twelve dark shapes. Twelve people had died.

One with vivid red hair spoke.

"So this is what it looks like, eh?"

"You know where we are, do you?" said another voice, and a dark-haired, stern-faced male stepped forward into the light that had begun to radiate from the center.

"I'd think so, Xaldin. But it's a little hard to explain. We're in limbo."

"But," said a third voice, and a blond-haired young man emerged, his face plagued by an all too happy expression, "don't you have to be, you know, dead, to go there?"

A hand protruded from the darkness and dealt him a heavy smack on the head. Its owner followed.

"Imbecile. But you do have a point. How do you explain that, Axel?"

"Well," said the red haired one, casually circling the light, "I'd think it'd be a pretty obvious answer, Xiggybar, but then again… Anyway, as Demyx said, the fact that we're here means we're dead."

By this time, the light had grown and all twelve forms could be seen. Exactly as he'd expected, he knew each one. Even in death, he'd never be fully free of Organization XIII. Although, he noted happily, he had shaken them quite a bit. Each one looked completely shocked.

"Now you don't seem to quite understand," he remarked with a smirk, "but if you think about it, I'm sure you'll remember."

Axel himself, of course, already knew how he'd died. The Organization had planned to harvest enough hearts to somehow bring themselves back into true existence. Stupidest idea ever, but at the time… He still didn't know how the plan was supposed to have worked out, but he saw the errors of his ways. They'd spent many a day trying to rid the Keyblade Master, Sora, who was trying to stop them, from the picture, but in the end Axel died saving him from fellow Nobodies. Ironic. But he was half Roxas, after all. Roxas… that was who he'd actually sacrificed himself for. He'd never see him again. But that was because he was alive. That pleased him.

Turning back to the realm of reality, he could see that everyone had figured it out.

"So now that you guys get it, what d'you wanna do?"

A blonde female who hadn't spoken yet shot forward.

"What do you mean? There's something to do other than hang here?" she growled questioningly, her face right in front of his.

"Sure," he replied unfazed, "we're here for eternity, being Nobodies... can't go to Heaven or, well the other place... and you didn't think the gods would let us get bored, did you Larxene?"

She looked at him, searing with anger and annoyance, and swiped at him, her yellow star-spiked throwing knives materializing in her grasp. She stumbled backward, in complete shock, because her fist had gone straight through Axel, but had had no effect. He laughed, highly amused by her naivety.

"Tell me you didn't think that would work. We're not physical here, people. Neither is the world around us. Everything takes the shape of what we're familiar with."

"Yes, because I'm terribly familiar with a black abyss," retorted Xigbar sarcastically.

"No, maybe not, but-"Axel paused and looked to the edge of the nothingness in which they found themselves. Sure enough, the light that had spread during the conversation was reaching the outermost regions of his field of view. Suddenly a flash of white blinded them, but when they regained sight, they couldn't believe their eyes.

"The throne room!" yelled a long-haired, malicious-looking man.

"Well, one of you recognizes it," said Axel, enjoying himself. "Good for you, Vexen."

Of course they all knew the place that had appeared beneath them. How much time had they spent there, talking over how to get enough hearts? With its whitewashed walls and mile-high marble thrones, it looked a very grand, imposing, and lonely place.

"We go right above the place we consider the most like home, I would think, and from there, we can each go anywhere. Or we can hang out as a group. And we can see people come in and out, too, and do things. Cool, huh?"

Blue flames burst from someone standing placidly nearby. Axel knew without looking that he had unleashed the furious temper of Saïx, and was acutely thankful that he could not be harmed now.

"Perhaps you think it is fun, you half-wit, but I do not! I will NOT watch others walk through our sacred halls, likely laughing at us, if I cannot!"

Scar flaring, pale blue hair flying, the enraged being summoned up his impressive blue claymore weapon and began to brandish it in a frenzy. The others backed off, still not quite accepting their new powers of invincibility and not wanting to test them quite yet, but Axel didn't even flinch. He simply stood there, watching Saïx coolly.

"You know, you might as well save your energy, because you'll never-"

He stood dumbfounded, because as he had said this, Saïx's claymore pierced the fabric of time and space and ripped through to the parallel dimension.

Immediately the man lunged for the escape route, as did all others. Only Demyx stayed put, looking more than a little confused.

"Where ya goin', guys?" he called pitifully. At the last moment, he grabbed onto Axel's ankle, figuring where everybody else was going was good enough for him.

The sensation of being gently placed into their respective seats in the throne room was the best any of them had ever felt. Real air gushed into their lungs, which once again hungered for it. It felt amazing.

Looking around, Axel saw that only a few had made it through the incredible lapse in the barrier between life and death. Larxene, Marluxia, Xigbar, Xaldin and Saïx sat around him, but no one else. He had hoped Demyx might have gotten through; the poor guy hadn't known what was going on until it was too late.

"Trust Saïx to destroy the indestructible," muttered Xaldin, a little loudly. Saïx smiled a bit, quite pleased with himself.

"And that fool Demyx is gone now too, without us having to have had killed," Xigbar remarked brightly. "Eternity next to him wasn't looking so great."

Without warning, the high white ceiling of their beloved throne room suddenly turned pitch-black. For a moment, Xaldin thought they were being punished for defying the natural life cycle, and shut his eyes. When he opened them a few seconds later, he saw that he was rather unsettlingly right.

"Hey guys! I thought I wasn't gonna get through there in time, but what do you know!"

A heartfelt groan echoed in the throne room. Why couldn't they get rid of Demyx?

"Typical," Xigbar growled.

"Isn't it though?" said Demyx cheerily. Then an enormous grin spread across his face and he began to rifle through the pockets of his barely-earned organization cloak. He whipped out a dolphin soft puppet quite ecstatically.

"Finny Fun! I thought I might never see you again!"

As Demyx launched into a winding description of how delightful his toy was, Larxene shot a cautious glance at Saïx. The berserker was putting up a gallant fight against his strongest instinct to mow the idiot into the floor, but she wasn't so sure he could keep it up. He was rocking back and forth rather violently, perched precariously on the edge of his chair whilst he bit his lip furiously. She hurried to him before his scar could begin to flare.

"Saïx!" she hissed in his ear. He was known to be distant while in a fit of rage. Slowly he turned his head, his eyes searing with the effort of containing himself.

"I just wanted to let you know that you should keep in mind that we're a smaller group than we were now. There's power in numbers, and without Demyx, as much as we may both want to run him through, we're only six people. We need him, so just calm yourself."

Quickly she retreated in case her words hadn't got through to him, but turning back around to sit in her seat, she saw that they had. He looked much more reserved, though the fury still blazed intensely.

"And so," Xaldin continued bitterly, "Xemnas doesn't seem to be joining us, therefore we must appoint a new leader."

Discussion broke out in the room.

"Who says we need a new leader? What if we wanted to, you know, restart our lives, for the better?" Axel questioned, somewhat hesitantly.

"There is nothing for us in the real world," said Xaldin, "They know us and they hate us. There is only our life here. But I have a certain goal in mind. I would like to kill Sora."

"The banana-footed porcupine?" asked Larxene. "What if we're sick of him?"

"Do you not recall how you died?" said Xaldin mysteriously. "I ask all of you, who was responsible for your death, ultimately?"

No one answered, but he was satisfied. Evidently he'd proven his point.

"So it's agreed?"

Still no one answered, but they looked considerably more motivated.

"So, leaders. I vote me!" piped up Xigbar, earning scornful looks from the rest of them.

"Or," said Saïx menacingly, "we could-"

"Elect me," came a burly voice, seemingly from nowhere.

Demyx dropped off the arm of his chair where he had been attempting to stand on his head. Spiked tendrils of dark matter curled up from the floor. An Organization member was coming. Which was odd, as every one that wasn't dead was already present.

And then, even worse, not one, but three people emerged.

The first hooded person unveiled itself. It was a young girl, long bangs parted with one side hanging in her face.

"Hasn't changed a bit, has it?" she remarked, angling her head up to the ceiling and brushing back her long brown bangs for a better look. Her voice was high and sharp, but strangely pleasant, like a sharp-tongued bird.

"Of course not. It hasn't been that long," said the now-unhooded second person. Another girl, who could only be the sister of the first. Though their faces were virtually identical, this one had whipped-back bangs with little tufts emerging from each, almost as if a spiky butterfly had landed on her head. The rest of her hair lay flat with the ends drawn outward, gleaming softly periwinkle.

"Ooh, I didn't know there were other girls in the Organization!" squealed the first, running to Larxene with her sister.

"I'm Ryxelle!" she said.

"I'm Lurexyn!" said the other.

"Larxene," said the slightly startled girl.

"We're twins, did you know?" chattered Ryxelle, looking to Lurexyn.

"Yeah, I kind of got that," laughed Larxene.

As the girls continued their conversation, the last figure stepped forward. It was much taller than the other two, and infinitely larger.

"And you are who, exactly?" asked Xigbar.

The twins gestured at it.

"Oh, that's our big brother, Ornix."

The still-cloaked figure reached up and revealed itself. A curiously small head sat upon incredulously large shoulders, steely gray eyes peering out of it. He was bald, which only added to the overall golem-like demeanor.

"He used to run the Organization, you know," they chimed simultaneously.

"And I've come back for my title," he said, his voice combining with his appearance to make him the ultimate in terrifying. But terrifying or not, Saïx couldn't take that last announcement standing down.

"I have had the most horrible day in the history of existence, and now, someone I met all of ten seconds ago is going to command me?!" he raged, leaping in front of Ornix, claymore drawn.

"I'm with Saïx on this one, I'm second in command here!" Xigbar yelled, joining his teammate.

"Ladies, ladies!" said Axel tauntingly, jumping between the opposing parties. "A little self-control, please!"

Saïx lunged at him, but he danced away just in time.

"Gotta be a bit a bit more careful with the lethal weapons, Saïx, that'd hurt me now," he warned. "Anyways, back on topic, I'm with new guy on this one."

"Might I ask why?" Xaldin demanded from back in his chair.

"Well, out of all of us," said Axel quietly, "no one has had any experience leading the Organization, but apparently, he has. We're not in a position where we can afford to appoint someone who has no clue what they're doing."

"It's an uncomfortable truth, but nonetheless, he's right," muttered Xaldin, "I agree."

Of course, the true reason Axel wanted Ornix to lead was that he said he had experience, but since they had only what he and his sisters told them to go on, he could be lying through his teeth. That was what Axel was fervently hoping anyway. He knew the current members knew everything about Sora, and so could easily kill him, but this new person had no clue. He also knew they'd easily submit to so intimidating a personality. It was absolutely perfect. For him.

"Ok…but now what?" asked Demyx. He'd been quiet the entire time, which was a rarity for him. "Our goal is to kill Sora, you know."

"Well, let's start at that then."


End file.
